Computer instruction for reading and language was first implemented in the 1970s and has progressed in complexity with developments in the technology. An early system, as detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,319 of Mazesli, et al, utilized optical components to train the student's eyes to focus on particular material and to advance laterally along the line of material to be taught, thereby teaching the mechanics of reading. Increasingly sophisticated systems incorporated audio presentation of the material to be learned, thereby simulating a human instructor and providing a degree of passive error control and correction. Systems which provide audio presentation are particularly well suited for foreign language instruction.
A reading teaching system having simultaneous audio and visual display of material is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,635 of Samuels, wherein the audio and/or the visual display of the material is altered to enhance the student's understanding of the meaning of the material to be learned (e.g., lower volume audio and downwardly-slanted lettering would be used in presenting the word "down"). Yet more complex is the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,589 of Waters, wherein voice recognition is utilized for instruction and for monitoring of a student's progress. The Waters system is designed to repeat material which is incorrectly "learned," as evidenced by recognized vocal responses, and to recommend termination of a session if errors exceed a preset fault tolerance.
A particular challenge associated with speech recognition systems, and critical to successful implementation of an automatic interactive reading system for a young child, is development of a children's speech model. Due to the range of pitch of children's voices, the irregular and unpredictable pace at which small children utter sounds, syllables, words and phrases, often without pausing to breathe where an adult would pause, their uncertain articulation, and the often strong influence of foreign languages spoken at home, prior art speech recognition systems have been unsuccessful at effectively recognizing speech uttered by children. Additional challenges to speech recognition include pronunciation variations attributable to regional dialects, foreign accents, common articulation problems, and idiosyncracies associated with various stages of speech development. An automatic interactive reading/language system must be able to address the foregoing challenges in order to be productive.
It is desirable to develop a system which will not only provide audio presentation and speech recognition, but also provide an interactive environment in which the tempo of presentation of material can be automatically adjusted to accommodate the student's level of skill and advancement through the program, wherein the student, and particularly a juvenile student, may participate with the program with increasing interaction as proficiency increases. Also desirable, for purposes of independent review, entertainment, and reward, is a system which can display the workproduct of each lesson by uploading and/or local display of the interactively-created presentation.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a computer-based reading or language instruction system and method, incorporating speech recognition software, for interpreting the student responses, interacting with the student, and altering the pace of the instruction based upon the student's responses.
It is a further objective of the invention to incorporate means for correcting student responses and audibly generating the correct responses as a means for simulating the activities of a teacher.
Yet another objective of the invention is to provide a system incorporating a database having lessons with varying degrees of student interaction to automatically increasingly challenge the learner and means to present those lessons in varied ways depending upon the proficiency of the student.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a speech recognition database to enhance recognition of children's speech and speech which is otherwise difficult to recognize.
Still another objective of the invention is to provide a system which will coordinate and display a joint performance of the inputs contributed by the student and the computer instructor in such a manner as to illustrate the student's reading or language proficiency.